Last night, I was looking for some old poetry that I wrote when I was in college (a long, long time ago) to use in the new novel that I’m working on: The Curse of Hekate. One of my characters is a rock star and needed some appropriately good lyrics that I could use as his words. But before I found the poetry, I stumbled upon some things I wrote in a creative writing class.
The title of the piece was “Autobiography of a Writer.” I found that odd because it never even occurred to me that I could be a writer until just last year! But at some point in college, apparently, I must have entertained the notion. I only took one writing class, however, as I had a parent who insisted that I have a career in something that was much more “reasonable” (my Mom’s words, not mine). So I never pursued it.
But in reading this piece that I wrote, I could not help see similarities in myself then and myself now. One of the things that surprised me in re-reading this piece was that I was extremely honest and put myself out there. I wrote about my father’s death – something which still affects me to this day. I’m surprised I was so open as I didn’t think I had even been capable of that in my 20’s. But there it is, on paper. The instructor wrote: “I appreciate the honesty of this paper. I hope this course will provide you with further opportunities to express yourself in writing and the chance to develop your ability so that it will serve you – and others – better.”
Interestingly enough, I’ve now always wanted to write, but maybe I just didn’t think it was “reasonable” myself, or perhaps the idea of doing it professionally never came to me. I fell into it by accident, by starting my blog at FanGirlConfessions.com. That’s where I realized how much I loved to write. I then started freelancing for DVICE.com and a friend of mine (Nutty from Nutty Bites) told me about NaNoWriMo. I had already been toying around with an idea for a novel and had written bits of it down, but that little nudge, along with one tweet from James Moran (“If you write, you’re a writer”) gave me the impetus to write Zeus, Inc. during the 2011 NaNoWriMo.
And once I’d read Zeus, Inc., I felt it was good enough to publish. So I revised and edited and revised and edited some more and put it out there. And now people are actually reading it, enjoying it and for some reason, that blows my mind. But it keeps me writing and working on the next book and the next series I’d like to continue to work on. After I’d wrote Zeus, Inc., I also landed a writing gig at RantGaming.com.
So this year, in 2013, I challenge you to do something you’ve always loved but never got around to doing. Be creative. Make something. Create something. Challenge yourself and just do it. You never know what might happen.
I write. I’m a writer.